Storytellers and the Stories they Tell...

I've come to find out, writing in itself, is nothing more than storytelling. A fairly straightforward concept I know, but that's the reality of it. So the first prerequisite to be a writer is to simply be a storyteller. And at least that part I have down. I've been a storyteller for as long as I can remember, and not just the lying type of story telling. That doesn't count.

My earliest member of story telling goes back to maybe the third or fourth grade. For some reason the teacher gave me free time to do as I chose (only God knows what she was thinking) and I being the studious young man that I was decided that I would write a story. A comic book actually. And I did. A wrote a captivating tale about a villain with a skull for a head and buzz saws for hands. (Yes, two buzz saw hands!) 

I even animated it, I drew the characters inside little story boards within the margins of the yellow sheets of notebook paper than stapled them together along the edges. It was amazing, even if I do say so myself, but it wasn't only me who said so. I showed my teacher and she was so... so... I don't know what she was, I guess impressed is the best word to describe it. But she was so, whatever he was that she had be read it to the entire class. I got to sit up in the front of the class, you know like it was story time and the class sat around me and I read my little story to them all and I would look up between horribly formed sentences and terribly drawn doodles and see eyes wide with excitement and intrigue, waiting in eager anticipation to hear what happened next.

I remember distinctly at the end of the story the Villain or Anti-Hero being violently kicked out of a window and falling to his death, or perhaps not actual death, I can't remember if I was already planning a sequel or not but you get the point. Skull Head and Buzz Saw Hands goes out the window and my story ends. And afterwards the little handmade comic book goes into the unknown void that was my little desk and was lost for the remainder of the school year. That is until, nearly the last week of school, when everyone is cleaning out there desk and cubbies in preparation for summer vacation, I pulled out this crumpled yellow little book, and in retrospect quite foolishly, announced to the class that it was up for grabs and flung it carelessly in the the center of the room. I suppose half expecting no one would be interested and it would go into the trash with a thousand other un-submitted homework assignments, failed spelling test and everything else we would stuff into our desk in hopes of never seeing again. However much to my surprise, my classmates jumped on the crumpled little comic with so much fervor and enthusiasm that it was ripped into a prime number of little pieces and taken by multiple kids a souvenir for kids to remember the school year.  Which means they probably forgot it even existed the moment the last bell rang or perhaps they didn't but i know for a brief moment in the fourth grade I was a storyteller in its purest form. So I guess that's the feeling I chase now every time I write, to simply tell a story I love and hope that someone else will love it too.

Sometimes I wish I would have kept that little handmade comic book, but I've come to realize that's what stories are for. Not necessarily for the storyteller, but for the tell-ee or the audience, or the reader or whatever the case may be. Once you tell your story, once you get your story out it's no longer solely your own, but it then belongs to everyone who loves it, and I think I like that.

Anyway.

Till next time,

Lefty

A Writer's Greatest Foe

Self-doubt is the greatest enemy of any writer, greater than any critic, any naysayer, any editor, any nit-picky reader, any grammar fanatic, any Nazi spellchecker, any publisher, literary agent, or pessimistic friend. Self-doubt will crush an author before an author can even become an author.

Self-doubt is the mind-killer. Self-doubt is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my Self-doubt. I will permit it to pass over and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the self-doubt has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

Okay so that last part is actually "The Litany against Fear" from Dune. I just took out the word fear and replaced it with the word Self-doubt. I stole it, so what. My point remains.

The biggest thing for any writer to overcome are his/her own doubts, fears and self imposed limitations. I know for me personally this hindrance has at times seemed insurmountable. "What you're writing is no good, your plot is weak (full of holes) and your characters flat (not to mention dumb), you'd be better off stopping now and saving what little dignity you have left." And yep I know what you're thinking, my voice of doubt is a real dick, and your right, but that's how Self-doubt rolls. It gets under your skin and its hard to shake, but you have to shake it, because the truth of the matter is you have nothing to lose.

Self-doubt is a defense mechanism, intended to save you from embarrassment or rejection or whatever you're afraid will or won't happen once you're done, but what you have to realize, and what I have to constantly remind myself  is that no matter what happens once you've written the last word or punctuated the last mark, the sun is still going to come up the next day. The world is not going to end. Time is not going to stop. You are not going to die if you don't get published.

Worst case scenario is you don't get published, you don't get the hundred thousand dollar book deal, you don't get picked up by some big shot Hollywood producer, and you never get that million dollar movie deal. So what, in the end, IF the worst case scenario does happen, you're no worse off than you are now, but at least you can say you wrote a book.

So keep writing, show self-doubt who's boss!

Till next time,

Lefty

23rd Inning Streeeeeetch...

So it turns out I'm in the middle of a video game hibernation, which is good since it seems like I spend most of my time in a writing hibernation, which is not good considering where I am in the book.
But first allow me to clarify, video game hibernation is when I'm not in any particular mode to play any video games, which is surprising since Street Fighter X Tekken was just released and I'm convinced that without ever even playing it's going to be one of the greatest fighting games ever made, but even knowing that, I'm still not incredibly compelled to play, really I just want to write.

Which is good, it's very good, because at this point in time I'm coming up on the final stretch of my first ever full length writing project. Somehow, by some random act of sporadic time jumping I've ended up on Chapter 23, yeah 23, and what's odd is I don't even remember writing most of them, well that's a lie I remember writing each and every one but I didn't realize how far I'd come, the last update I posted on the blog about my progress stated I was on Chapter 19. So it turns out part of the reason I didn't publish any new post in February is because I was busy tearing it up on the book writing front, and you thought I was just sitting around slacking off, hmph! I think you owe me an apology... I'll wait

Anyway I'm 23 Chapters in, with 8 maybe 9 chapters to go. Feels good to be so close, but like a marathon runner, it's all about how you finish, so my main objective with this last portion of the book is to move cautiously and make sure I tie up every loose end. You know,  dot every "T" and cross every "I" and make sure nothing sneaks away from me during the excitement of the conclusion.

I'm still shopping a large portion of the book around to test readers, roughly the first 12 chapters, so far most of the feedback had been great, but sometimes I'm getting no feedback at all. Its times like those that I have to assume that the text simply didn't do enough to hold the readers attention or enough to capture their imagination with enough vigor to encourage them to either keep reading or at least let me know what they thought about what they did read. Perhaps they wanted to spare my feelings, and decided that since they didn't have anything nice to say they'd just keep quiet. Either way, I have to face the realization that even once the writing is complete it's going to take a few additional rounds of revisions before I'm actually done. But still, a completion of the actual writing is a milestone I'm looking forward to crossing.

Almost there.

til next time,

Lefty

Books on Writing Books 2

Here are the list of Books on writing books that I have added to my library so far...

Gotham Writer's Workshop: Writing Fiction
The Write Brain - Bonnie Neubauer
Sin and Syntax -  Constance Hale
The Little Red Writing Book -  Brandon Royal
The Daily Writer - Fred White
Sparknotes: How to Write a Short Story
Spunk and Bite - Arthur Plotnik
The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing - Editors of Writer's Digest

I'm a novice,  perhaps a journeyman at best, and I know in a previous post I stated that most books on writing books are a complete waste of time and paper, and most are, to be honest, my opinion on that hasn't changed in the slightest. But that's not to say I know everything there is to know about writing, or that I don't seek out and or need help, because i don't know everything and i do need help. I am but a mere Padawan Learner, a Jedi Apprentice with no Master to guide me. So, I've began an compulsive search to find fruitful and beneficial material that will help me grow and develop as a writer. and thus far these are the books I found informative enough to add to my Library of study.

To these books and the rules set within I have taken a Bruce Lee, Jeet Kune Do, styled of academic learning approach, meaning, I read through and "Absorb what is useful, disregard that which is useless." Not one of these works, I feel could stand alone as the premier and essential guide to writing, but together, with a bit from this one and a thought from that one, I have found myself becoming a more confident and competent writer.

Name Collecting

What's in a name?
In fiction writing, I believe a character's name is the most important part of their being. A character's name is its soul, it is the essence of who that character is, or who they are to become.
For my current project I basically took an old nickname and built a character around it, pretty soon the character had taken on a life of his own, becoming even larger and more complex than I could have originally imagined, and  it all started from his name.
There was a point in this character's development where I considered changing his name. I had imagined it would seem self indulgent to name a character after myself, even if it was only a nickname and not truly my name in full, but by the time I had considered making this change it was too late. My character had already became who he was to be, and to attempt to change his name at that stage would have meant changing everything about him.I found this odd at first, I mean in reality people change their names all the time and it has no grand psychological effect on who they are. I mean if the guy sitting next to you at work, comes in one day and says "I needed a fresh start so I've legally changed my name from Steve to Donald." that's not really going to stimulate any great change in who he is as a person. To you, he'll still be the guy in the next cube, albeit a bit more strange, but still, same guy, different name.
But see with literary character's its different, The name is the culmination of everything that character will ever say, do and experience. Rather if it's bestowed upon them before a single word is written, or if they don't actually receive a name until you've thought out every detail of their personality, either way throughout their literary life span they will have not one single more important characteristic than their name.
So my question is: Where do you get your names?
As stated earlier the protagonist of my current project derived his name from a modified form of my own, but come on, a man can only have so many nicknames. Conveniently enough, I currently work in a Call Center, and though I hate it, it does supply me with a near endless amount of odd, new and exciting names to reference use and develop as my writing career continues to grow. That's right, you read correctly, I collect names.
And honestly I rather enjoy it. I hear a name I like and I scribble it down on a sticky note or some random scrap of paper and store it away happily like a squirrel hoarding acorns for the winter. Its like a pastime of mine now, everywhere I go, my ears and eyes are open for the next great name that I can gobble up and add to my collection.
So I guess if I had to answer Juliet's (great name don't you think?) question of 'What's in a name?' then truthfully I'd have to say, everything.

til next time,

Sincerely yours,

Lefty